The winner’s of the 14th annual Eurobike Awards have been announced, and British urban cycling brand beryl has been announced as the winner of the “Special Purpose Bike Category” for their market leading technology and design in the Smart Light collaboration with London’s Santander Cycles.
The Pashley bike design was the product of a successful collaboration between a startup, operator and industry, demonstrating that the next-generation of bikeshare is smarter, safer and easier to maintain.
Upon winning the award, Emily Brooke, Founder and CEO at beryl (formerly Blaze) said: “Our mission at beryl is to design innovative solutions for urban cyclists, with the end goal of removing barriers to cycling and getting more people in cities on bikes. To win the award for our work with Pashley and the London bike share scheme is incredibly motivating as it shows we’re able to make a difference to cities through innovating for cyclists.”
The Transport for London bike share scheme (sponsored by Santander Cycles) is one of the largest in the world, and the beryl team had the opportunity to design a set of smart lights, to be embedded on the bikes across the scheme. It combines next-generation lighting capabilities with a future-proof smart data platform.
For bike share operators, the bike can provide anonymous journey data and Bluetooth communication, distance and usage statistics. power management (charges at 6mph), accelerometer data (speeds, unreported accidents, road conditions) and GPS route data.
Additionally, there are plans in the pipeline to add pollution sensing. beryl’s smart data program is allowing the scheme managers to collect insights and increase efficiency, adoption and satisfaction.
For the bike share users themselves, the advanced lighting system provides an additional safety mechanism. beryl’s patented Laserlight technology projects a distinctive cycling icon into the blind spot of other vehicles, and a reactive rear brake light lights up when the cyclist slows down.
The Laserlight technology was rolled out on the London bike share scheme after the independent body, Transport Research Lab, found that it increased visibility of cyclists by up to 30 per cent, and was an effective way for bike share operators to protect their users on busy urban roads.
For more information please visit beryl.cc
